It is well known that an important consideration in the production and use of integrated circuits (IC) is the package in which the IC resides. The modular casing in which the IC is packaged is an important factor in the ultimate cost, performance and lifetime of the product. Dissipation of the thermal energy generated by the IC is extremely important to the reliable operation of the package. Numerous schemes have been proposed and utilized in order to attempt to extract the heat from the package. Most of these strategies rely upon the use of a thermally conductive heat sink, either attached to the outside of the package or to the surface of the IC. Each of these approaches requires the use of additional parts and is cumbersome.
Much of the heat sink prior art shows the use of extruded aluminum or copper heat sinks of substantial mass. Other art, while using heat sinks of lesser mass, employ heat sinks having a very large surface area. The problem with attaching heat sinks to any IC package is the long thermal path between the source of the heat (IC) and the heat sink. This long thermal path impedes the efficiency with which heat can be extracted from the chip.
The power or heat generated by high-density ICs is now of the level that can make operation of the electronic device dangerous to the user in certain instances. For example, power amplifiers generate hot spots on the circuit board that can ignite surrounding materials and cause fire.
Clearly, the prior art heat dissipation methods have been insufficient in providing a low profile, low cost, and highly efficient package for integrated circuits that can dissipate the thermal energy generated by the ICs.